1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a nutritional balance and a method of monitoring the food and nutritional intake for diabetes, and more particularly to a nutritional balance which is capable of monitoring the food and nutritional intake and controlling the daily caloric intake obtained from food while providing a reference information for a reasonable carbohydrate, protein and lipid combination and recording the daily intake of the caloric value obtained from different kinds of food. In other words, the present invention provides a health monitoring balance system in food and nutritional science which is especially important for monitoring the diet and health of diabetics.
2. Description of Related Arts
Food and nutritional science is playing an important role, particularly, in the developed countries. It gains our special awareness when the problem of obesity and its related diseases are rising dramatically throughout the world. Obesity may be a trigger or a cause to many diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus. Owing to the fact that an imbalance diet or an excess intake of food may lead to obesity, we all understand how important our diet is affecting our health.
Obesity is one of the major triggers of Diabetes Mellitus while both obesity and diabetes mellitus is one of the worldwide health problems. Patient suffered from diabetes mellitus has absolutely or relatively insufficient insulin secretion from pancreas which is vital for glycogensis that excessive blood glucose is converted to glycogen for storage. Some obvious symptoms of diabetes mellitus are excess thirst, extreme hunger, frequent urination, weight loss, glucose lost in urine, high blood glucose level and a variety of complications including blurred eyesight and stoke. For many years, medical treatments of diabetes are waiting for a breakthrough and specialists are working hard to find a solution for this disease. However, as it is relatively difficult to cure the disease by the present findings and technology, a wide variety of methods have been employed for diabetes treatment. Existing methods includes psychological treatment, diet treatment, exercise treatment, medicine treatment (including traditional Chinese medicine, western medicine and insulin treatment) and blood glucose control. Referring to the different gravities and status of the patients, different methods are employed to fit individual's need. For example, some patients may use only one method of treatments to control their diseases while others may require several method of treatments to monitor their diseases. Among the diabetics, irrespective of their types of diabetes and gravities of illness, it is necessary that a predetermined diet must be followed. That is to say, a diet treatment is a basic necessary treatment for treating diabetics.
A diet treatment is usually a self-control treatment of the patient himself directed by a doctor. Thus it is very difficult to achieve a satisfactory result because it requires the patient himself to follow a diet according to the food and nutritional science and the quantitative control with reasonable combinations and strict rules. Diabetes mellitus is a commonly occurred disease in the world, and international nutritional organization has made a standard classification of food for providing an accurate guidance for food and nutrients. It is well-known in the developed countries that food is divided amongst six categories as being A to F in a Food Guide Pyramid. The six categories, A to F, generally are A: Cereal, bread, rice, pasta group (containing food obtained grains), B: Vegetable group, C: Fruit group, D: Milk, yogurt and cheese group, E: Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts group, and F: Fats, oils and sweets group.
On the other hand, an electronic balance is commonly used for getting a weight reading in daily life. This kind of balance comprises a weighing container, a weighing unit and a display wherein the display is usually incorporated with simple numerical scale and that only the weight value is shown. There seems no direct relationship between the balance and food and nutritional science or diabetes mellitus and the use of a balance for diet control has not been discovered and utilized. If it is possible to use a balance to obtain a nutritional value of food being eaten, it would be a great breakthrough for diet control with a balance.